


I'll Make the World Safe and Sound For You

by fandomfix



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Good Parents Maggie & Wentworth Tozier, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, POV Outsider, Pre-Slash, basically just maggie realizing they need to get the hell out of derry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:36:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22978501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomfix/pseuds/fandomfix
Summary: Maggie Tozier never wanted a son. But that didn't mean she wouldn't fight tooth and nail to protect the one she got.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 1
Kudos: 104





	I'll Make the World Safe and Sound For You

**Author's Note:**

> I finally complete something to contribute to this fandom, and it's just me on my "the Tozier's weren't terrible!" juice. I'm actually sort of hesitant to include the ship in this since it's so much more _implied_ than actually seen, so if anyone thinks i should take that tag down just lemme know and i'll do it.  
> lastly, this is movie canon cause it's been 15 years since i read the book so just keep that in mind.

Let the record state that Maggie Tozier never wanted a son.

She was from a family of sisters and had mostly female friends. She had never had to change the diaper of a baby boy in her life and the idea of doing so both terrified and disgusted her.

But when they laid little Richie in her arms all those years ago, she’d known she wouldn’t replace him for the world.

He was so small then, so tiny and quiet, she’d been afraid he hadn’t made it. Years later she’d joke that her prayers had been answered by giving him _too_ much to say, but it was always said with a smile on her face.

She loved their son. Went loved their son. As he grew and got taller and taller, louder and louder, wilder and wilder…

She knew she would do anything in the world to keep him safe.

Which was why the day she realized her son was gay was the scariest day of her life.

Truth be told, it was Went who realized it first but was too worried to say the word out loud.

Richie was fifteen, and he’d been feeling down because another of his little friends had moved away. Maggie understood his sadness. Since he was thirteen, two of his friends had moved and never contacted him again. It seemed this time was no different. Richie tried his hardest to be upbeat, never letting on that he was sad. She’d see him with his remaining friends sometimes, acting like nothing was wrong and hated how good her son had gotten at hiding his emotions.

Then Went brought it up to her in a soft voice one night as they lied in bed. Pointed out that the only one he ever seemed to open himself up around was little Eddie Kaspbrak. Poor Eddie with his crazy mother who would come hide out at their house whenever he could.

Went pointed out to her the way Richie spoke to him when he thought no one was around to hear them, the gentle tone his voice would take. A tone Maggie joked she’d only ever heard him take with small animals.

It was Maggie who noticed the looks. The way he’d follow Eddie with his eyes whenever they were together. The way he’d act out worse than he ever did with his parents, just to keep Eddie’s attention on him.

All things Wentworth had done when trying to date her years ago.

And she knew they couldn’t stay here.

Derry wasn’t like other towns. She’d known that since the day she’d settled here with her family, but something happened two years ago. Children had started going missing and it wasn’t until the disappearances stopped—till that terrible Bowers boy was arrested—that she realized something horrible.

She hadn’t been worried about the disappearances at all. These were children her son went to school with, children her son had played with when he was very small. Richie ran wild through the town on his bike all the time. He could have become one of those LOST posters so easily.

And for some reason, it was only in hindsight Maggie realized she hadn’t cared at all. It was as if something had taken over her mind and she hadn’t cared that her son was out at all hours of the day.

Derry wasn’t like other towns. No one seemed to care about the violence that happened there, about the abusers and the bullies and the horrible racism. It was 1991 for heaven’s sake and she still heard people saying horrible things about Richie’s sweet friend Mike all the time.

And now her son was gay. Had probably always been gay. And Maggie knew they had to get him out before anyone realized.

She had never thought one way or the other about homosexuality. She was already married and raising her son when the AIDS epidemic started. More than fear of getting the disease herself, she’d worried about the conditions people were being left in when they contracted it. And after all the fuss over that basketball player, the world was starting to admit it wasn’t “just the gays” getting it.

Now all she could think about were the accusations people in this backwards town would throw at him just for being himself. All she could hear was Sonia Kaspbrak telling her son he was _diseased._

She told Went they were moving to California. She didn’t ask if he could find another job. She _told_ him he would if he cared about their child at all. It was a low blow, but the fastest way to motivate her husband had always been to imply any type of danger to their son.

So, Went searched. And by the time spring of 1992 rolled around, the move was set.

Richie threw the biggest temper tantrum she’d seen since he was five years old and she’d told him he was grounded from playing with Stanley Uris for a week.

Her husband gently reminded him that he was much too old for that sort of behavior, at which point he stormed off to his room. Maggie could hear him crying for at least an hour.

And on the night before they were going to leave, she awoke to the sound of voices coming from her son’s mostly empty room.

“I’m going to forget you, just like they did,” she heard her son’s voice say, soft and delicate, terrified.

“No,” came another voice, sterner and more certain. She’d never heard Eddie Kaspbrak sound so confident in his short life. “No, Rich. You won’t forget us cause I won’t let you. What would you do without me, huh?”

She turned from the noise, wanting to give them privacy, when she heard one last thing that broke her heart.

“I-I love you, Eds. I don’t want to go.”

The sob that followed wasn’t her son.

“I love you too, Richie. I love you too.”

Maggie knew they were doing the right thing. Her son would never feel comfortable being himself if they stayed here. He’d never be able to do all the amazing things he was capable of if he was stuck in Derry, Maine. But as she fell back to sleep, pretending she didn’t hear the soft sounds from her son’s room, she knew she would always hate what she’d done to those boys.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it!
> 
> Come say hi on [my twitter](https://twitter.com/fandomfix8)!


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